La rustichenella

Nov 2, 2008

The party last night at my brother's was wonderful...a million Gators cheering on UF, who slaughtered GA., while eating like as though the sun would not rise on the morrow.

My nephew Stefan cooked a whole pig in the back yard! And also 10 lbs of chicken, 5 lbs of eggplant and 5 lbs of zucchini all on the grill. He made 5 lbs of yucca, seasoned with lime juice and garlic fried in hot olive oil. He also oven roasted a 22 lb leg of pork--Cuban style—just in case there wasn’t enough to feed the crowd and one of Broward’s finest, the cop who came to tell me to move my car.

I brought avocados for 3 huge salads and then made 1 &1/2 lbs of black beans and 2 lbs of rice and about 20 sweet fried plantains...

There was also dessert which I won't go into...suffice it to say, some people actually ate it.

If I tell you there was barely enough pork to scrape together a sandwich today, would you believe me? You’d be foolish not to. It's true. And there weren't even 50 guests.

The mojitos were made by the pitchersful, not to mention a keg of beer and several cases…and of course, vino.

Everyone had either a designated driver, slept over, or called a cab.

Today I'm making a pasta dish that I haven't made in over 20 years...
pasta alla rustichenella—pasta a little rustic style

In a large as in really big fry pan cook:

2 lbs of mushrooms thin sliced
one onion, sliced
3 tablespoons of olive oil
hot pepper to taste
salt to taste

Cook for a few minutes and then add:

¼ cup of white wine. (I usually cheat here and eye it…and my eye is generous, because I like wine).

Next, when the alcohol burns off, add:
3-4 artichoke hearts, marinated or not, quartered
2 ounces of flat anchovies with the olive oil from the tin
3 cloves of garlic.

On a high flame swoosh and smoosh around till the anchovies dissolve. Add 8 ounces of tomato sauce.

Bring to almost a boil and then reduce heat to LOW…cook for 5 minutes.

Let cool and them plop it into the blender and mix away to a creamy blend.

Cook linguine and top with this delice de Dieux! and a smattering of bread crumbs.